I wanted to share a tool I built to scratch my own itch, but starting to think it may have wider appeal. I call it Best Best List and the aim is to answer "what product should I buy?" in a similar way that Rotten Tomatoes answers "what should I watch?" i.e. by summarizing the opinions of lots of other critics/websites.
It has been working really well for everyday, kind of "mundane" products that you would get on Amazon. Say for instance you're looking for a small blender. The way I would always go about it is searching google for "best small blender". I would end up with 7 browser tabs open of all these review sites and spot the 5 or so models they recommend. Finally I'd cross-check those products with their Amazon ratings/reviews/prices. I'm not really interested in spending hours reading long-form reviews. I realized that I could code a little bot to do all this work for me... and so I did!
It's by no means perfect and very much a work in progress, but it's encouraging that my friends have started using it and giving me good feedback.
Like I said, I'm totally scratching my own itch and it has been working well. Based 100% on what the tool is spitting out, I have recently bought an EZ-curl bar for my home gym, new tweezers, a small blender, and a cigar cutter. I gotta say I've been extremely pleased with the recommendations.
Caveats: It might not be the best tool for very complicated items with tons of specs (e.g. a TV) or emotional purchases with brand loyalty (e.g. a guitar) - for those maybe you do want to spend hours reading reviews. Also it's just Amazon for now.
If you want me to run the tool on something you're thinking of buying, submit it here: bestbestlist.com/ask. Put it to the test and let me know what you think!